Writings, pics, music, arts and difficult conversations

Are You Being Served?

High Heat Wave to Greet
The Queen in Manhattan

This won’t hardly be one of those “Where were you when…” moments. Jagged New Yorkers, lucky enough to have a job to go back to after a somber holiday, will hardly notice it. They’ll surely complain about the gridlock though, or puzzle for a moment over someone carrying a miniature Union Jack. All and all, it won’t come close to bad news from Afghanistan or the rising unemployment as a chat subject for their lunch break.
And let’s be frank, Elizabeth II’s mystic may’ve been fitting to Britons but hardly ever to Americans, who rather struggle to turn the Kennedys, Hollywood movie stars, deranged rock stars, even hot dog eater stars into what across the pond is considered proof of their self-appointed superiority. Only in their dreams.
For the only member of that dynasty that seems to have some resonance down here, Lady Di, died years ago in Paris only to awaken scrutiny over the Queen’s own ability to even feign humanity.
So, in her third and most likely final visit to Manhattan, King George IV’s daughter will not likely to elicit the kind of rapport she once was capable of. Something to do with her incredible wealth, some may say, or what she and her family cost to her still called subjects. The same ones hurting with the depression as ordinary Americans and citizens of every stripe who happen not to have a Windsor for last name.
She’ll still ride a regal motorcade through the canyons of Manhattan, make no mistake. And those small flags for sure will be waved at her, who’ll probably ignore them all from behind the tinted windows of her royal limo. And officials and dignitaries won’t miss the opportunity to rub against the privileged and their sequin of ornate guards and servants who still think of themselves as above you and me.
Don’t forget her forgetful husband too, now that they no longer have Queen Mom and her daily Gin Martinis. Did we mention her son Charles’s late conservative criticism of the architetural kind? They’re all irrelevant except for their millions, of course.
But she’ll still be here and some crowds will be drawn to her, inevitably. And so will the meek, the jagged, the unemployed. The couldn’t-care-less and the very much interested in their demise. Mostly, the uninterested. And then they’ll leave and we’ll all go back to the business we never left unattended. And the week will proceed and life too and with them, the once so important need to follow these people. Who needs them when we have Sandra and Lindsay and Tiger and so many other way more interested than the royals? Maybe if we were in London…

WILD HORSES

Harrowing Ride

Audio Portrait

East Village in the 80s through my answering machine. Greeting messages, friendly voices, a recorded ecstasy and many tongues were left on tape for me to remember. Now I'm sharing it all with you. Enjoy it.

World Cup
in S.Africa.
Remember?

Joyce's 'Ulysses'
as Graphic Novel

The illustration above is one of the plates of "Ulysses 'Seen,'" a high quality graphic adaptation by Robert Berry of James Joyce's masterpiece "Ulysses."
For those who never got around to read the long, uninterrupted, controversial June 16, 1904, conversation by Molly Bloom, Stephen Dedalus and others, that the great Irishman envisioned in Dublin, you won't have a better chance to do it.
And for those already familiar with the book form, it's another opportunity to appreciate this enduring work of literature through the eyes of a contemporary artist.
In either case, a few pints of Guinness to go along with it are absolutely optional.

EPITAPH

"Alone we are born, and die alone;
Yet see the red-gold cirrus
Over snow-mountain shine.
Upon the upland road
Ride easy, stranger:
Surrender to the sky
Your heart of anger."

FALSE ALARM

Desmodus

The Artist

Father & Son

Fireball Over Midwest Skies

COLL POLL

The Numbers Are In

Voting stations are closed at this time. The final tally was 13 votes in favor of Coll getting a cellphone and two against it.

MAY 19th IS COLL'S BIRTHDAY & HE WON!

This decision is final. Thank you all for participating. Coll's most heartfelt gratitude goes for the kind souls who voted in favor. For the two heartless hacks who were against it (you know who you are), a SWAP team graciously volunteered to pay you a visit first thing tomorrow morning. Stop by the front desk to request a waiver to present to your teacher, boss or dominatrix. Call your mother. Enroll in a charitable cause. Volunteer at a Soup Kitchen. Run to raise funds for Aids. This is our last broadcast. Please tune in for future promotions. This tape will self-destroy in five seconds. No further ado will come out of nothing. (5/19/2010)

MOTION

CLUTCH

Off-Key Note

Writings, pictures, videos, comments & more, edited by a writer, musician and world citizen living in downtown
New York City.
Acting gigs, a few screenplays and endless clashes with reality.
Brazilian by birth, multilingual by chance, cash strapped as usual.
Agnostic but partial to great soccer. Unmoved by sunsets, campaign speeches, the religious pull or any sure bet.Poor vision and lower back pain. A bottomless pit for a navel. Blue, cats, 9, left, heat and outer space.
Common ground needs not to apply. Not accepting advice at this time.

Naked City

“In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, five hundred years of democracy and peace – and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock.”

Slideshow

LAST WORDS

* - "Let's do it."GARY GILMORE, executed by firing squad in Jan. 17, 1977, by the State of Utah, for murdering a model clerk. He was the last person to be executed in the U.S. in that fashion until June 18, 2010, when Ronnie Lee Gardner was shot to death also by Utah.

Norman Mailer wrote "The Executioner's Song," which he called a "true story," based on the relationship he established with Gilmore, a confessed killer, and the state of affairs of the U.S. in the 1970s. The book doesn't shy away from the horrific facts surrounding his murderous spree, but in a way it tones them down and shifts the focus to the society's possible role as a fertile ground for such deviant behavior.